Chris August w/ Jonny Diaz at the Community Coffeehouse

The emotion Chris releases throughout his latest album, The Maker, is nothing if not real. There’s nothing manufactured or forced. Out of 90 songs, the songs chosen are all charged with intention and written out of a place of great pain and greater redemption. And for Chris, that’s really all that matters.

“There’s nothing better than when you’re at a show and someone comes up before or after and says a song impacted them,” Chris says. “Sometimes it’s crazy and sometimes it’s just as simple as someone saying my music helps them turn around a bad day. I never take that for granted. Some people will even say, ‘I know you hear this all the time, but …’ I always stop them and say, ‘No, I don’t. And even if I did, it’s so encouraging.’

“Without that, all I’m doing is making music. It’s just songs and melody and what’s the point?” he concludes. “But when it’s impacting someone and inspiring them and encouraging them and the Lord’s in it…at that point, it’s much more than just music.”

Like any hard-working husband and father, he may be wearing a multitude of hats and life may not always be perfect, but he’s learning to find and appreciate the beauty in the messiness. Everything is changing, but it’s really Diaz who’s being changed in the process; and he’s more than OK with letting God shine through his imperfections.

“In my effort to be genuine, one of the things God has called me to do is to not stand on stage and try and look like I have it all together,” he says, “but instead, stand on stage and admit where I need saving, because I can make my Savior look big by admitting all the things He’s saved me from. I can stand up there and say, ‘Here’s where my life has completely fallen apart, but here’s how God has pieced me back together.’” Click here for more.